and the diameter, larger than a pencil eraser, those are things that you need to pay attention to. if those things are changing that raises your level of concern, certainly. make a trip to the dermatologist then and certainly get it checked out. if you missed any part of today's show, be sure to check out my podcast at cnn.com/podcasting and remember, this is the place for the answers to all of your medical questions. thanks for watching. i'm sanjay gupta. more news on cnn starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, everyone. from the cnn center, this is cnn "saturday morning" for this march 20th. i'm t.j. holmes. >> i'm abbie boudreau. it's 8:00 in atlanta, thanks for starting your day with us. as we get closer to the vote, several house democrats are trying to decide if they'll vote for or against the health care reform bill. we'll look at what's in the

bill, how much it will cost and who's voting for it. and they're used to the flooding in the red river up there in fargo, in moorehead, minnesota but they're still on edge right now. we'll explain why they are just a levee break away from a huge disaster. our reynolds wolf is live in moorehead and we'll check in with him in just a moment, but first we want to share with you the headlines. >> among the top stories, health care reform. president obama meets today with house democrats. the house is set to vote tomorrow on the senate version of the reform plan. 216 votes are needed to either pass or kill the senate version of the bill. cnn congressional correspondent brianna keilar tells us if 38 democrats vote no then the bill is dead. she says so far 29 democrats plan to vote no. pope den dikt says he is truly sorry, breaking his siel own thes vatican sex abuse scandal, apologizing to the victims in ireland. in a letter he released an hour

ago, he stopped short of holding the vatican responsible and he addressed in ireland including the pope's homeland of germany. more than 1,000 flights are canceled today as one of the world's largest air carriers deals with the start of a three-day strike. cabin crews have walked off the job after negotiations broke down last night with british airways. the airline has chartered flights from some of its rivals to accommodate some of its affected passenger sdmroos this weekend, some of the biggest days we have seen in the health care reform battle on capitol hill. so we have pulled out the big dogs and there they are. white house correspondent ed henry will give us a preview of the president's speech to congress later today and he'll be speaking to democrats. hello to you, i haven't talked to you on air. >> good morning, t.j., congratulations to you on your wedding. >> thank you so much. >> brian a we'll bring you in.

sorry, we had to have our moment. our congressional correspondent brianna keilar is at the capitol rotunda. we do want to start with brianna. we have a rules committee meeting that's taking place this morning. a lot of people who have been watching this debate. you hear about this bill, that bill, this debate, that debate and we throw in the rules committee. explain to people why this is a big deal. >> normally, we don't care a whole lot about the rules committee meeting, but we do today. this is a big deal ahead of this expected vote tomorrow. why? because the rules committee is in charge of laying out the details about how the debate is going to go down tomorrow and this is really a point of contention between democrats and republicans. t.j., all week long we've been talking about how they're planning to do this, this idea of deem and pass that what you would do is to -- what dechl democrats would do to avoid a direct vote on the senate health care bill that they really don't like that they want to vote changes on to that bill is they

would stick it into the changes bill and when they vote on the changes bill, the senate bill is deemed passed, right? this is something that republicans and a lot of voters were saying hold on a second, that is not okay. this meeting is going to put that in stone and we're expecting it will. this is where it becomes official and just to give you a sense of how we normally don't even care about a meeting like this, it's held in a pretty small room, but for the first time ever we're hearing from the rules committee they've had to set up an overflow room so that people like reporters like me can watch it in an overflow room. intense interest in climbing through the weeds here. >> that says a whole lot. they're not used to accommodating that many reporters. they have to make some space for you, but we also hit on a news conference that's coming up at around 11:00 again. one in a series of big deals we are seeing happen this weekend. everything is important. >> reporter: everything is

important. this is anti-abortion democrats. you say wait a second. anti-abortion democrats, there are some. they're a minority in the house democrats, but there's enough of them that they really matter because they do not like this bill and if they don't get a change, if they don't get stricter abortion language they say they're voting no so that's why we're paying so much attention to them. when the house passed their health care bill in november this was the issue that held everything up at the last minute. they had to strike an 11th-hour deal, democrat leaders did with the anti-abortion democrats to get their votes and now they're saying they're not going to change the bill, but at the same time some of those votes democratic leaders really need. so how is this going to shake out? is this going to be the thing that threatens the passage for democrats last minute? we're not sure how it will shake out and that's why we're paying so much attention to the 11:00 presser with congressman stupak who is leading the charge and that is ahead of this 3:00 p.m.

meeting very important, president obama coming up here, the pep talk of all pep talks. a lot of attention on that. >> brian a thank you so much. i know we'll be talking to you soon, but hurry over to the rules committee room and grab you a seat. thanks, brianna. >> as brianna just said the president will be meeting with house democrats at 3:00 this afternoon and remember, the president canceled his trip to indonesia this weekend so he could be around for the vote and for everything else going on. our ed henry is at the white house this morning. ed, a lot is at stake for the president this weekend. that's right, good morning, abbie. i actually had my bags packed supposed to be heading with the president to indonesia tomorrow morning. if there's an argument left he hasn't made i'm not sure what it would be, but if he's got it he better bring it out now. top aides have already said that this week alone the president's had more than 64 contacts either phone calls or one-on-one meetings with various wavering house democrats. in fact, there's a photo the

white house put out of the president making a phone call on the way to george mason university, should i say, in northern virginia where he had a big rally to try to sort of rally his base, build some momentum in advance of this house vote, and what he's doing in these final moments and final hours is to say, look, put aside the politics. let's focus how this can help americans all around the country. >> do you know if the president is planning any sort of big celebration if this were to happen, if this passes? >> no. you know what's interesting is they sort of see the rally as coming today where, you know, they can get democrats fired up in advance of that sunday vote, but i'm told that the president's top aides that he's been telling them in private he doesn't want to do some sort of victory dance largely because of what briana was talking about, that after the house passes, the senate has to go through the fix-it bill over the course of the next few days. so this is not done on sunday.

so he doesn't want to look like he's counting the chickens. he wants to make sure to make public remarks saying we're glad the house moved forward if they do move forward on the vote, but they're not going to have a big celebration on sunday, abbie. >> thank you so much. a quick tutorial here on the health care reform vote. this is an effort to try to make sense out of this. >> take a look. she's are the democrats that have not declared how they'll vote. they're getting intense pressure from both sides of the issue. the total number of democratic no votes needed to kill the bill is 38. by cnn's latest count there are 29 democratic no votes and others remain uncertain. throughout the day cnn political teams are canvassing house members for updating the numbers. we do know how much it will cost, but where is the money going come from to pay for the bill. they put the estimated price tag

at $940 billion over ten years, and a lot of that will come from the increase on medicare tax on high-income households. also for the first time there could be a tax that could be applied to investment income as well as wages. also money would come from a tax on high-cost medical plans and that would be delayed until 2018. another source of money would be penalties for those who don't get health care insurance. the only thing left here really, a lot of house members that could be taking part in sunday's vote. we'll have them right here with us. ohio democrat dennis kucinich, we know he has switched his vote. he is now voting yes and he'll be with us. democrat turned republican parker griffith. he's saying there is no way he'll be voting for this thing and also one person who is undeclared texas democrat henry cuellar. we'll find out exactly if he's still undeclared or if he is still undecided. you'll hear from all of them on a special half hour of coverage

at 9:00 eastern. all right. waiting and watching in minnesota as the red river rises. governor tim pollenty is confident flooding but they're not taking chances. 7,000 sandbags are being used to fortify the area with an extra 300,000 bags ready if needed, but engineers are keeping an eye open for any leaks. >> just so you have a joint every six feet. those joints, we believe, started failing and so we started getting water on the dry side of our levee system. >> we're kind of at ground zero right out of our back windows. >> reynolds wolf is live in moorehead, minnesota where the river is expected to crest this weekend. reynolds, are you there? >> i am right here. we're looking at -- >> i have a question for you reynolds, i was fascinated by

the frozen sandbag that you showed us in your last live shot. what good are they if they're frozen? >> reporter: that's a great point. the idea is when temperatures were a bit above normal -- or above freezing, the idea was to mold them and to put them in shape then and when you have the temperatures dropping and things freeze up and the water molecules tend to make things brittle and that's why they're on them and inspecting them all of the time. they're great leading up to it and in warmer weather they become more effective and when you have the cooler conditions that's when you have to watch them carefully. something else to mention, when you have ice on the river, right now we don't have this at this point and when you have ice and it hits the levees it really will test the fortitude and the strength of those and that is something else they have to watch out for. something else we've been watching out for is a bit of perspective. i was out in this place, abbie, last year. we did some live shots in the parking lot. there was a time when the water was so high it came a little bit

above the waist. at this point it's not that high. in fact, the water is expected to go up to 37.5 feet, but there are other changes we've seen. this year the water is not quite as high. another things you're seeing is the center avenue bridge which is right up here. chris, we'll walk up here really fast. this was closed last year because the water coming through was at such a high rate there was no traffic at all on this roadway, over here in this parking lot, don't even bother, i don't think we can get it. i'll tell you about it. you had the lower level of the parking garage all filled, too, and things are certainly being looking better. one of the big issues is if you have any of the levees break, any at all it could be a game changer and you'll see flooded neighborhood and that's what we worry about on both sides of the river. we have a forecast we want to talk about, very quickly. the flood warnings here and the flood issues here and farther south in the great plains we're dealing with the potential of a

very strong winter storm that could bring up to a foot of snowfall in parts of oklahoma. they've dumped plenty of snowfall, in fact, back into the rockies. some places several feet of snow. we do anticipate this system will come bring more rough weather to parts of the eastern seaboard possibly in the southeast also. that is the latest in the forecast and we'll have more updates from moorehead and fargo throughout the morning. back to you. >> thanks, reynolds so much. >> we'll check back with you later. >> you bet. someone out there is watching you. it could be your boss. we'll tell you what employers are doing to track their workers. you think money's tight now? what happens when the neighborhood schools after the stimulus money runs out. josh levs finds out.

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another week and yet another set of schools in crisis. this week it was detroit looking to close dozens of public schools to try to stay afloat. >> believe it or not things are not about to get better. they're going to get even worse and when billions of dollars from the stimulus runs out, you can only imagine. our josh levs is here with us to tell us more about this. josh, what's this about a cliff? what are you talking about? >> it's a cliff, and this is what's wild. >> we think things are bad now, right? educators are calling it the cliff. they've gotten billions of dollars over the past year from the stimulus. that's going to end and then we're talking about things getting way, way worse at schools all over the country. i want you to see how drastic this is. we have a video that we'll show you right now that highlights examples of what will happen to schools in cities across the

country. michigan, detroit's hit so badly in this recession, they've got $1 billion from the stimulus just for the education system alone there, and most of it already spent. now go over to california. $6 billion there from the stimulus just for the education system, and the vast majority of that has already been handed out. another stark example is in new york. they're expecting a $2 billion shortfall after the stimulus money runs out there in new york. so those are just a few examples of what we're seeing when we hear about this thing called the cliff. unless i hear otherwise i'll take a walk to the cnn magic wall, and i want you to see how much money you've gotten from the stimulus in your state and how much money has been going to education from the stimulus. this is the stimulus desk, and i want to show everyone the screen right here. $100 billion. $98.3 billion from the stimulus has already gone to the education department. $71 billion, abbie and t.j., has

been given out to the states. so with all those billions already delivered to the states for education, it's still so bad they're looking at massive shortfalls in the next year. >> what does that mean for the schools and what does it mean for the country? ? it's really bad. the a.p. did a really good story. the associated press spoke with a bunch of experts because they boiled it down really well. what happens to school? more teacher layoffs, lower pay which means more unhappy teachers that are there. larger classes in general, fewer electives and fewer extracurricular activities and what happens to the country, boom, look at this. have weaker public school systems in general. you have more -- higher unemployment in general because we know when schools get worse it's harder for people to find jobs and you you have higher unemployment in general and it could kill the president's education goals in general, and a wider gap for those who can pay for private schools and

those who cannot will get even worse, the education gap gets worse. guy, very big stakes so that's why we as a nation need to tackle this crisis facing our schools. >> thanks so much, josh. this really is a big problem especially in detroit when we keep hearing about the schools shutting down, we feel for these communities. >> the community school is such a sense of identity for so many folks. >> thanks, josh. checking our top stories. the pressure is on in the nation's capitol help house speaker nancy pelosi says a vote will be held tomorrow on the senate version of the massive health care reform package we've been talking about so much. all of the republican house members are against the bill. so far 29 democrats oppose the measure, and it would take 38 democratic no votes to kill it. >> opponents of health care reform gathering on capitol hill today as well trying to send a message, nearly 2,000 organizations taking part in a noon time protest. several are scheduled to speak

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♪ ♪ ♪ you ever feel like someone's watching you? maybe they are if you're ever at work checking facebook, gmail,

espn, twitter and all that stuff. do not assume that your boss is not watching you. according to the american management association more companies are electronically watching their employees. more people are also getting fired for what they're doing at work. our tech guru mario armstrong joins us with an important topic this morning. companies spending more time keeping an eye on their employees in the first place. why? >> well, a couple of reasons. a lot of people take offense to this type of issue, but i'll break it down three quick reasons. number one, companies are trying to do more with less. so they want more productivity out of their workers so you want to find out how much time are you spending on the sites that are not work-related. two, it's become cheap and easy to install this type of software and hardware devices to do the tracking. you no longer have to spend a lot of money doing that type of stuff and three, we're seeing more and more employees now spilling the confidential information from inside of their

offices. they're bashing their bosses and talking about their co workers and some of them are giving up details and insider information to bloggers that are out there? that's a good point there. but something else interesting to point out there, they're not just looking to see if they're saying something bad or a website you shouldn't be on, they just want to make sure you're focused on work when you're at work. that's a good point. how would you know? how would an employee ever know if you're being tracked by an employer. >> >> the bottom line is it's something that's legal for them to do. as an employer they have the right to do this, but you really can't tell, t.j., unless your company has come forward and said hey, look, we are tracking you and here are the reasons why we're monitoring you. that's the only reason to know unless you ask someone on the i.t. team or tech team and they tell you so. so there are no visual signs for you to find out unless you end up doing something bad and you end up getting caught. i would check your human resources policy because it

should state what type of tracking or monitoring should happen on any electronic equipment that's owned by the company. >> or you could just work while you're at work and try that and that will keep you out of trouble. >> imagine that. >> what kind of stuff are they using to track their employees? >> all types of things. some are hardware devices that you can use small usb drives like this that you can plug into a computer. smaller companies use this type of technology or they'll use a cd or software, rather that they'll install to all of the computers. on a larger company they can do this across a net work a lot faster. it is software and it is a combination of hardware as well. for example, if you have a co-worker surfing pornographic websites and you tell someone about that, they can then confiscate that laptop and analyze the hard drive to be able to determine whether or not that computer was actually on a sexually explicit website. >> i think i heard you mention a moment ago that this type of surveillance is, in fact, legal,

and we hit on what kind of thing you should do at work to keep from getting in trouble. one, just to do work when you're at work, but you know, if you want to check your facebook and all this every once in a while, is there a way to get around some of the this spy gear, if you will? >> there are always ways to get around technology, but the question is do you really want to put yourself in that position? if you want to did personal things i suggest getting a personal cell phone to send e-mail and do your calls on that or a personal laptop. if you're receiving a laptop from work and you're taking that laptop home and using it for facebook, myspace or twitter, that information that's on that laptop is still legally tracked and monitored. it can still be tracked and monitored through that particular company. one other thing to keep in mind, too, t.y., a lot of people don't do this, what you walk away from your computer, log off. if you're still logged on to your computer and someone else can come to your desk and type

in information that you didn't even type and then you're in the hot seat trying to defend yourself for something you didn't even do. >> great tips this morning. i have to let you go because i have to go wipe my hard drive clean. >> stay off the grid. >> appreciate it as always. mario armstrong, of course, our tech guy and joins us every saturday at this time. mario armstrong giving us the latest scoop on the latest technology. you know, when i grow up,

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welcome back, everybody, to the cnn "saturday morning." i'm t.j. holmes. >> i'm abbie boudreau. thanks for starting your day with us. health care reform is our top story this hour. the house is pushing toward a vote tomorrow on the senate version of the bill. the house rules committee is deciding this morning how tomorrow's voting will play out. the full house convenes this morning in about 30 minutes. later today president obama huddles with house democrats for a strategy session. 216 votes are needed to pass or kill the reform measure. tea party groups are gathering today in washington and several

other cities to protest the plan. pope benedict says he is truly sorry. he released a letter not long ago in regards to the priest sex abuse scandal that has rocked ireland. in that letter he apologized for the harm caused and rebuked irish bishops for, quote, grave errors in judgment. many victims are accusing the church of covering up years of abuse. >> air travelers across the world could be feeling the effects of a labor strike. british airways is canceling more than 1,000 flights today after a walkout by the airline's cabin crews. last-ditch talks collapsed last night between the airline and the union. we are still sorting through the yeses and the noes, the undecideds and the undeclared. it's been a week of flip-flopping and political man uf sxerg they're battling each other over health care reform. lisa dejardine is our capitol correspondent for cnn radio. where are we? we keep talking about the 216

number, who is the closest one to it. >> well, neither side is declaring victory at this site, and they are awfully close and today is make or break. just like brianna keilar has been telling you, we at cnn have counted 29 or 30 no votes. the 30th is the vote that may change. that means democrats can only avoid seven more of their members to jump ship that out of two dozen undecideds and it's very tight. >> we hear these -- many of these representatives say that they have read the bill. there are several bills that have been floating around up there, but the ones in particular that we were talking about is the 2,000-page senate bill and the 153-page now reconciliation bill. how difficult is it to get through all that reading? >> it is like reading a different language. it is almost hard to believe that this is english sometimes. the good thing about reading these bills, and i know you've kind of looked through it, it's in large print so that's nice.

all kind of jokes about why that is, but it's in large print, but i'll tell you what, you have to keep handy the u.s. code, a table of contents. you have to look section by section because it's not written in a language that we speak. it's written amend section 5.9 of u.s. code blah, blah, blah. all these numbers. it doesn't say what they're doing and you have to constantly cross reference and very slow going and usually takes me a week or two of staying up until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning every night to get one of these 2,000-page bills and i for one, would be happy to not have to read another one for a while. >> we know that's not going to be the case. this might be the last health care bill at least for a while, some of them are hoping. >> but you're right, it's legalese and it is a totally different language. lisa desjardines, thank you for your time and we'll be checking in with you shortly. >> protesters from nearly two dozen tea party organizations are planning to take part in

today's noon time rally. several law makers are scheduled to speak there along with actor and activist jon voight. you heard me talking to lisa there about the yeses and the noes and the undeclareds and undecide it is, and we have one of each of these. we have three congressmen who will be coming up in a little bit who will decide what happens with your health care. they will join us live, dennis kucinich, parker griffith and henry cuellar are all coming your way in 25 minutes. all right. so from washington, d.c., to minnesota where we are headed to hang out with our friend reynolds wolf for just a little bit here. he's in moorehead, minnesota, where the river is expected to crest this weekend. reynolds, behind you, the light is coming up and now we can see where you are and get to see everything that's behind you right now. are there a lot of people who live in the area where you are right now? >> reporter: you know, it's certainly not the most highly

populated place in either minnesota or on the other side of the river of north dakota, but it's still a decent population, i would say it's a medium-sized city and the people over the bridge are making their way across. they're just acting like it's a normal day for them. for most, it is normal. they're getting up and going to get their coffee and making thins seem as normal as possible. the thing at issue, is the river directly behind me. if you've seen this and you've never seen this before, it looks like a big river. it's actually like a meandering stream that stretches some 550 miles from the south to the north and empties in lake winnipeg in canada. that sign is actually kind of like the lines of a road that goes underneath like the high-profile vehicles that can go underneath the trestle. if you were to follow along the length of bridge, the river is relatively shallow and people can actually have picnics and see, of course, the water come

by, but that certainly has changed and the big reason it's changed because of the drastic snow melt. the snow that is still over here. take a look at this big pile. chris davis, the photojournalist, and i know the sun will play havoc with the camera, so we'll be careful with this, this snow melt is one of the culprits of the issues and the flooding that we have today. water expected to top out at 37.5 feet later tonight and into tomorrow, but there's a hope that it won't get quite that high. if you look at the parking lot, that's the parking lot where the water came up to my waist a year or so ago. certainly not the issue now, but if we have any breaks in the levees or the dams that changes everything. some of the action we've been seeing in terms of flash flood watches and warnings, let's go right to the weather maps very quickly if we can. as we go to the weather maps and we'll take them in full. the green on the map and that will indicate where we have the biggest dangers for flooding. another big danger we have not along this red river, but the red river of the south that makes it parts of the texas and

oklahoma border. we can see heavy snowfall there today. we could see some that can measure up several feet up to colorado we could see up to a foot of snow in oklahoma. it's not a snow maker, but a rainmaker, severe thunderstorms in parts of texas as all of this cruises more to the east, abbie, we could see more thunderstorms develop in parts of tennessee, perhaps, alabama and georgia. we could have flash flooding in low lying areas with poor drainage. as we wrap things up, that is the late of the we have and of course, we'll watch the water rise and we're expecting to reached point of 27.5 feet tonight and into tomorrow before receding again and we'll watch the levees very carefully hoping that they'll be strong enough to hold back these waters. let's send it back to you. >> thank you very much. we'll be back to you not too long from now. thank you very much. >> you bet. golf fans are talking about it along with everyone else and everyone seems to have an opinion. >> of course, they do. tiger is coming back, and his

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our top story probably for the hour and for the weekend, washington, d.c. the house is pushing toward approving the senate version of the health care reform bill. all of the republican members appear to be voting no. so that means if 38 democrats join in in voting no then the bill would be defeated. so far 29 democrats have said they will vote no. election officials in iraq are counting votes, too, but a delay in announcing a clear winner has the country on edge. at the moment it's a tight race between the two leading candidates. experts believe without a stable government in place soon there to be a rise in violence that could also affect the agreement to allow u.s. troops by 2012. pope benedict apologizing

for the priest sex abuse scandal in ireland and rebuking the bishops there for grave errors in judgment. in a pastoral letter released just last hour the pope railed against abusers and said they must answer before god and civil authorities. victims of the abuse accused the church of covering it up for years. as small businesses are busy reinventing the economy,

small business owners have a lot of questions. can paperless billing get me paid faster? how can i keep my best employees? how can i bring down my insurance costs? that's why we're building a community called openforum.com where owners can swap ideas and ask questions. will tweeting get me more customers? how can i get paid faster? i was about to ask you the same thing. join the conversation at openforum.com. yeah. all eyes will be on tiger. he is making his return to professional golf in about three weeks. a few days ago the world's top golfer ended speculation and announced he'll return to the sport at the very spot where he

won his first major 13 years ago, the masters at augusta. our sports analyst joins thus morning. this is a tall order. he's been off for 150-plus days now. you know what? a lot of people thought you have to come back and do a tune-up event. why would he go all out and go big? >> that's the way tiger is. he was number one and still is for 583 straight weeks. he won six events last year. bottom line is he does great at the masters. four of the wins of his majors are masters wins. the last four years he's placed sixth or better and listen, you only have one chance to come back from what happened to him and you need the controlled environment that a private club gives him the advantage of. it will be very well scripted. nobody will like it, but it will be well scripted? >> this is a good move. a lot of people don't realize how tightly controlled this

course, this event is, but maybe beyond this, when he gets to more open places, and open events where their rowedier crowds, how will he be received on the greens? >> a lot of it what happens is what happens between the ropes. if he competes well, look at this superstar, he's four wins away from jack nicklaus' major record. if he doesn't do well, the scandal affected him. it is important to have him back and it is now certain that he is back and that is the key. so now that everybody knows he's back, the eyes of the golfing world will be on him. does he play well or not? i'm not kreskin, but i believe this is a world-class athlete. there is no glass ceiling for tiger woods. >> i heard someone actually say that they believe this event, his comeback will mirror the presidential inauguration of barack obama. it's going to be that big. people will watch the masters anyway, and now that he's back and you throw this in it, everyone will be watching. how far down the road will this change the dynamic on the road

through the year. >> ratings are down 40%, 50% and tiger woods has been competitive golf. there have been great success stories that people have largely ignored based on the uncertainty when tiger's coming back or not. now we all know, and he has such a profound effect on the business that this is going to be the biggest story of the year no matter what happens. >> anybody have a chance of getting into this event if somebody was trying to track down a ticket to get in there? any chance? >> you have to have a lot of coin and you have to know somebody. this will be the most historic event. so all those badges are selling in the secondary market, $2500, $3,000. if you want to go you have to come out of your pocket, my friend. >> are the sponsors are getting excited down the road? are they starting to come back in droves? i guess the masters probably does okay, but still down the road, are the sponsors certainly going to be coming back now that they know that tiger is coming back. do you hear me all right?

i see you having an issue. >> yeah. i can always hear you. i can feel what the question will be. nike and ea are partners. so they understand that he's got to come back no matter how he performs. a lot of those sponsors that walked away from him or vice versa, accenture, gillette, they're on the fence. all of the contracts with tiger woods and anyone else in the future, even if there are new deals signed and they'll be smaller, and easier to terminate. that's what tiger woods has done to the business. >> rick horrow, always good to see you. i know you're going to the masters. are you going this year? >> absolutely, my friend. maybe i'll stop by atlanta and pick you up. >> i'll be on the curb with my bag. >> responding to the child abuse scandal and the catholic church. just a short while ago, in the last hour the pope released a letter detailing actions for the allegations. a live report from rome is coming up. we've opinion talking about

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i love being a home loan expert. ♪ >> an apology from the head of the catholic church. pope benedict says he is truly sorry for the priest sex abuse scandal in ireland. the vatican released an 18-page letter today which is expected to be read in churches across ireland. diana magnay joins us live from

rome. i understand the pope has a message for the perpetrators of the sex abuse scandal. >> reporter: absolutely. he has some very strong words in the letter, he's basically saying to them that they have to acknowledge their crimes and face justice, they have to face properly constituted tribunals, not just before god, but also before civil law and the vatican spokesmen shortly after we were all given this document explained that a bit further. let's listen. >> the pope has also very strong words for the -- for the priests and the religious who have arc buzed the children. he say that they have to respond to god and to the courts and also the justice of the state. >> reporter: and abbie, we know

that the pope has been working on this letter since last summer. so really quite a long time. it's interesting, it's written in a very simple, direct personal way, and i'll just give you a sense of the way it's written and what the pope is saying. in the name of the church i openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel, and at the same time i ask you to not lose hope. so the pope acknowledges the pain that people have gone through at the hands of these priests within the catholic church who have committed abuse. he says he's very sorry and he's making very clear that it will not happen again, abbie. >> diana, did he say anything about meeting with the victims? >> he did say that he would meet with victims again, not specifically necessarily to ireland. he said i have met with victims in the past and that was back in 200 and he met with victims of sex abuse in the u.s. and new york. he said he would be happy to meet with them again. something that was expected or

that some expected out of this letter was a call for resignations, of cardinals and bishops in ireland and this did not come out in this letter and the vatican spokesman said is because this is a pastoral letter. it's not a piece of legislation. abbie? >> thank you, diane a very much. we are getting into the power of numbers this morning on capitol hill. it's left fewer than a dozen lawmakers to decide the fate of health care reform. we will have the latest as both sides try to pull some of those fence sitters off that fence. also, this is the first day of spring? seriously? try telling that to some of those snow-weary folks in certain parts of the country. we'll tell you who's dealing with blizzardlike conditions on spring time.

as small businesses are busy reinventing the economy, small business owners have a lot of questions. can paperless billing get me paid faster? how can i keep my best employees? how can i bring down my insurance costs? that's why we're building a community called openforum.com where owners can swap ideas and ask questions. will tweeting get me more customers? how can i get paid faster? i was about to ask you the same thing. join the conversation at openforum.com.

checking our top stories, at least 12 people are wounded following a series of israeli air strikes across the gaza strip. the air strikes come just one day after a rocket believed to have been fired from gaza killed a worker in southern israel. israel says the strikes are retaliation for attacks by palestinian militants. today is the first day of spring and it feels that way here in atlanta, but somebody forgot to tell them in oklahoma. there's a state of emergency there across all 77 counties because of a powerful winter storm. high winds are expected and up to ten inches of snow. the d.o.t. is asking drivers to keep off the roads. more than 1,000 flights are being canceled today as one of the world's largest air carriers deals with the start of a

three-day strike. cabin crews have walked off the job after negotiations broke down last night with british airways. the airline has chartered flights from some of the rivals to accommodate some of the affected passengers. we've made clear it's time to scrap this bill. they'll continue to ram, ram, ram this bill through the congress. >> just the co-pay for one month is $350. >> the bill will have a huge factor and it will have a huge impact on whether they're here next year or not. what's it going to mean for obama? will his presidency be crippled or will he be -- or -- or will he be the comeback kid? the clock is ticking this morning, and lawmakers in washington are making an 11th-hour case for and against health care reform. at this very minute the full

house is getting ready to convene. also, the house rules committee is going to be meeting in about an hour. very important this morning, the meeting of the rules committee because they're actually going to be voting and going to be explaining and laying out exactly how the rules are going to go, how the vote will play out and also anti-abortion rights democrats are planning a news conference at 11:00 eastern time this morning and mid-afternoon, democrats only meeting on capitol hill and to be heading up that meeting will be president obama. yes, making his way to the hill. you're seeing a live picture, i believe we do have -- we were trying to show you this morning of them getting ready to convene. the house floor this morning. there they are starting to usher their way in and find their way in and find their spot because the debate is about to get going again this morning and a vote could happen tomorrow. before they talk with anyone

else today, house members will be talking to us and they'll do it right now. we have a yes, a no and undeclared representative joining us this hour. >> up first. five five days ago, dennis cuesive in, he was not backing the president's plan. in 24 hours he now plans to vote yes, and he's joining us this morning from washington, d.c., there he is, congressman dennis kucinich. good morning to you. we'll show our viewers some video that i'm sure you're familiar with. you were with the president this week on air force one. he went to attend this health care rally in his district and he called you out in front of your constituents there. let me ask you first of all, you switched your vote and any chance that you would switch back? >> i don't think you need to denigrate this huge decision that i had to make which was to think about how we could keep the health care debate going. i have fought long and hard for single payer. that's not in the bill. i fought for public option, couldn't get it in the bill and

tried to protect the right of states to pursue single payer and couldn't get it in the bill and what i was looking at was a decision whether to kill the bill or enable it to deep breathing with the hopes that that will be part of a larger discussion for comprehensive health care reform after this passes. so i chose to keep the discussion going and keep hopes alive that we can continue to move in the direction of health care reform. if the bill's killed i think it will be years and years and years before washington will seriously talk about any health care reform, whether it's a model for a profit system or whether we can expand toward a more national health care system. >> certainly, sir, i don't mean to certainly put down everything you had to go through to what that decision was. we were used to hearing you talk about this bill and how it was a bad idea, saying things along the line that it was much better for insurance companies and investors than it is for the american people. to hear your language like that for so long and to hear you turn

around and say i support the bill. a lot of people are scratching their heads. >> i don't take back any of the criticisms i make of the bill. in life sometimes you make decisions on things that you would prefer not to do in order to create the possible they down the road you can get back to where you want to go. it's like driving a car and drive down the road and you hit a roadblock and you can go over a cliff or take a detour and in that detour you're still looking at the destination where you want to arrive. i want to arrive at an america some day that will have a single payer and not for profit system. that's not what this bill is about. one thing for sure, if this bill goes down there will not be any opportunity to have any discussion about health care options in the immediate future in this country. >> you talked about the detour and it has been taking you down a road that for so long you've said you did not want to go at least. have you been given assurances by the president or democratic

leaders that if you give your vote that they will go back and talk about the concerns that you have about the single payer system. do you have confidence that you will get down on the road. >> president obama made it very clear, he's not for single payer, but what he did say was this, the other concerns which includes diet, nutrition and complimentary alternative medicine that he would be willing to work with me about the increasing discussion of the issue in this country. what we're look at is a presidency that's crippled. not only that, you're looking at no talk about health care because it took us 16 years to have a discussion about health care once the clinton bill went down. again, i just want to tell you that i am not retracting any of the criticisms i made. i am not giving up my hope that i can help create possibilities for people at the state level to move towards single payer model, but right now it's not the bill that i want, but it's the bill they can can serve as a step

towards a larger, more expanded comprehensive health care reform, you know, however flawed the process and the bill is. >> sir, give me an idea of what you have been hearing from constituents and critics and supporters for so long who hear are you have health care and you call it a bailout to the insurance companies. you're voting for that now. what kind of responses have you been getting? >> there have been people on both sides of the issue. seem want me to vote for it. people want me to vote against it. do i want to be the vote that kills health care reform? because this is a very close vote. two weeks ago it was widely reported that i was a pivotal vote on this, and when you look at the moment, and you see either you're going to make something happen. you will stop something from happening, and it becomes a matter of conscience. you have to think about the implication of the vote and is there any opening at all that

you might have to be able to use this passage to continue a comprehensive discussion about health care reform and hopefully get some day to where you want to go, and i thought i would be in a much stronger position on behalf of my constituents to be part of a process that moves the bill forward where i take the singular responsibility for killing health care reform and that might cause people to celebrate me for a single day and after that they'll ask me, hey, dennis, why didn't you think about it? why did you dig in? how come you're so inflexible. these are things and we have to look at things as they are and not always as you would like them to be. >> we know this is a heavy decision weighing on a lot of your colleagues up there in d.c. we will certainly be watching. we appreciate you step to our camera this morning. >> thank you. >> not everyone agrees with congressman kucinich that this plan is better than no plan at all.

we'll try to get that to you a little later, but words there that are resonating with dr. parker griffith. you will hear from him as well. this is a congressman who left the democratic party in december and became a republican over the president's proposed health care reform. what is it about the bill that he just can't take? you'll find out. he's up next live. stay with us. [ male announcer ] hairstyles come... and hairstyles go. but, to get the most out of every style, you've got to have hair... hair that's full and thick. excess build-up on your scalp can leave your hair looking thin. new head & shoulders hair endurance for men has a hydrazinc formula designed to remove build-up and help restore your scalp to health, leaving you 100% flake free hair that's fuller and thicker looking -- guaranteed. new head & shoulders hair endurance. respect the scalp. get the hair.

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it is being misrepresented by the democratic party. >> this half hour we're talking with representatives who are voting yes, no and undeclared. you just heard from ohio democrat dennis kucinich on why he changed his vote this week from no to yes. now we'll be talking with parker griffith, he's a freshman representative from alabama who switched parties over this whole health care issue. he's a retired oncologist and he's against it. good morning to you. thank you for being here with us. at this point, can i ask you, is there anything that would change your mind on this late juncture maybe you'll get onboard and vote yes. >> no, there is nothing that will change my mind and thank you for having me on. i did receive a call from the house physician's office and there's an unusually large number of shoulder and arm injuries being report in the house physician's office. although i am not one of those, i would not change -- would not

change my mind. this is a bad bill. it's been a bad bill because the premise of it has been faulty from the start. >> we know how you feel about it there. you talked about you not liking the bill. at this point what are republicans doing behind the scenes? are you trying to pull over a few more noes or are you content to sit back and watch the democrats scramble to try to get enough votes for this bill? >> well, they're scrambling very hard, but i think both sides are making their case. wield like for those who know that this is a bad bill to stay firm on their belief that it's not good for the american people and certainly not good for our patients and not good for the health care system in general. >> representative griffith, where do you put the number right now, where do you think they are, the yeses and noes. >> think we're four up. i think we're winning. >> four up? >> yes. the count, depending on whose charts you're looking at might go to three, it may go to two,

may go to five, but i think it's in a flux right now, but we're hoping that those individual congress people that understand that the gao number, i don't think anybody over 4 years of age believe the number that was put out by the gao. i think the almost trillion dollar number doesn't ring true with anybody in america because we've never known a federal program to come in under budget or at budget. so this is a false number. so when we hear congress people use that as a treen change from no to yes. we know there's other things coming on in the back ground, but i hope those that are no remain no, and it would abe victoryi victoryive. depending on what charge you're looking@at, we keep talking about the number 216 to pass or to fail, but you're saying you might be as many as five up. you think you're somewhere

around 220 nos on this bill. we could be at 220 noes, yes. we could be. i think some of the people who have said how they're going to vote over the last 48 hours may want be there. i think we're hearing from our con stitch wens on an hourly basis. some of the congress people have been refusing to take calls from their constituent, and i think that's been a mistake. i think we're beginning to hear and see that this is a very, very serious bill and had this been a good bill, we would not -- you and i would not be having this conversation. if this was a good bill, if this was a bill that the president understood, or nancy pelosi understood and could explain to the american people, wieldn't be having this conversation. >> representative, griffith, congressman kucinich who switched his vote from no to yes. >> he said he did that because he liked to keep at least the conversation going, and if this

bells away and dies and it would be another day or two before we get red of this, would you think it's a better idea to keep it going and make changes along the way over the years? >> i think congressman kucinich is a brilliant man, but he's had a lapse. you can keep the conversation going without making this bill law. once this bill is law it is going to be very, very difficult to change it, and what's going to happen, and i think that maybe congressman kucinich may not realize this and many, many other congress people may not realize it, but i've been a physician for 40 years. we're getting ready to create a two-tier system of medicine in america. we're going to have the neiman-marcus medicine and the

rest will be dollar general medicine. you cannot reform a system around the shortage. we have an acute shortage of physicians. the physicians are not able to see the patients that are out there now. there's a difference between coverage and access. you can have a card in your pocket that says usa health care, but you still cannot see a physician because there are not enough of them. there are not enough primary care inning ifs, and this aren't enough neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. i mean, this bill is poorly thought out and it will lead to acute shortages and those who have are going to be fine. the poor, the near poor and the middle class will suffer because they'll have a card that says they can have care, but have nowakes is to it. >> as you know, des agree and this bill was well thought out. >> representative griffith,

thank you for taking the time as well, and i know we'll be catching up with you again. we'll be looking at your chart and it will say 220. >> thank you. appreciate you. >> we just heard from congressman voting yes, dennis kucinich and the representative there explaining his no vote. now the wild card in the debate. the lawmakers that will ultimately determine what happens to the health care in the country. the all-important undeclareds. what's keeping a democratic congressman from signing on to the bill. his party is pulling out all stps to pass. he's joining me after the break.

>> the future of health care reform comes down to a handful of votes. they are the all-important undecided and undeclared lawmakers. here's how it breaks down right now. 29 tell cnn they are still undeclared. 15 others haven't said how they'll vote and keep in mind, lawmakers still have 24 hours to change their minds or to make up their minds. we're talking about democrats here. 38 democrats decide that they are going to vote no then that would essentially defeat this legislation. this half hour we're talking with representatives who are voting yes, no and undeclared. you just heard from alabama republican parker griffith. he's voting no.

earlier dennis kucinich explained why he is now voting yes and now it's time to hear from one of those important undeclareds. a blue dog democrat henry cuellar, doesn't like the idea of spending taxpayer money possibly for abortions and he represents a district that ranks in the nation's top ten for residents without medical insurance. so you have a lot to consider here, sir. i want to ask you, first of all, you are undeclared but can you tell me have you made up your mind yet? we are getting close to 24 hours from the vote. have you decided what you will do? >> i think you hit it right on the nail. i've got a district in the top ten most uninsured district in the whole country. at the same time as a blue dog, i want to look at what sort of impact this will have on our country. the cbo numbers that came out are very promising. when you talk about reducing the deficit by $138 billion in the first ten years and $1.2

trillion in the next ten years that's very promising, but it's the issue about the cost. it's the issue, of course, providing access, but the other thing is you have other factors. i'm a tort reform person. i want to see tort reform also. >> representative, you kind of slid right past my first question now. i know you're undeclared. what i'm asking you personally behind the scenes, have you decided if you're going to vote yes or no tomorrow? >> no, i haven't, but there are some things that are very promising. i will tell you that. >> what is the hold up then, sir? the bills have been out a long time. the reconciliation bill out just 48 hours ago, but what is still the hold up that 24 hours before the vote you are still not sure? >> yes, sir. i'll tell you what it is. first of all, as a small business person i still want to know what sort of impact it will have on the small business. i've been in a small business person. i want to make sure this, you know, we do this correct.

we've looked at the senate bill that's been out there. the reconciliation came out. let's keep in mind that there might be a manager's amendment and i want to make sure i'm aware of any changes they might have at the last minute. >> sounds like you're leaning yes. would you say you're leaning yes? >> there is also a report out that you want to do this independently. you don't want anyone trying to influence your vote and you're not even taking calls from the white house, is that correct? >> that's correct. with all due respect to the white house, this is my district. this is the 650,000-plus people they represent as a congressman. i know my district better than anybody. it's not the white house decision. this is my decision as a congressman, and i want to make this in an independent manner. >> do you think that's even -- are you worried about how they may feel about that at the white house, the president of the united states calling and you

won't take his call. >> the white house did call. i will say this. i got elected on my own. it's the people that elected me and those are my bosses. >> with the federal, there's something that you're not comfortable with. the funding and you want to make sure there's no federal funding of abortions. are you confident in the language you're seeing so far in the senate bill and also the reconciliation bill? >> yes, sir. i have looked at it very carefully. i prefer the stupak language that we've been looking at the senate language. we've looked at some analysis and i looked at the language last night and i looked at it over it over and over again. i want to make sure that at the end of day there are no federal dollars being used for abortions and there are a lot of protections there. even when people look at it, you know catholic bishops still have concerns and at the same time you have the catholic hospitals. you see the catholic nuns that have come out and support and they feel comfortable with this language and you can see that each now there are differences of opinion on the language.

i want to lock at the legal analysis to make sure that -- as an attorney, that henry hydeman middle no federal funds will be used for abortions. >> will you get a chance to speak? i know the president's coming over to the capitol and will meet with the democrats. do you plan on attending the meeting and will you try to avoid him? >> no, no, no. i'll be there at the caucus. i'll see what the president has to say, but again, this is my district. i got elected by the people in district 28. i have to see what's good for that particular district and of course, what's good for the state and the nation. >> all right. representative henry cuellar, one of those all-important undeclareds right now. sir, we appreciate you taking the time and good luck with your deliberation and we'll see you for the vote tomorrow. >> thank you, t.j. coming up next, the bottom line with our own stephanie elam coming up right after the break and we'll be back with more live

news at the top of the hour and we continue our coverage of this big weekend with health care reform. stay with us.